Trifluorovinyl ethers are used commercially as comonomers in polymers, particularly as comonomers in highly fluorinated polymers which are often chemically and/or thermally relatively stable. The ethers are usually made by the gas or liquid phase thermolysis of the corresponding acyl fluoride over a bed of reactant and/or promoter. However, these reactions often give only fair yields of the trifluorovinyl ether and tend to generate relatively large amounts of toxic waste, which are difficult and expensive to dispose of. In the novel process described herein, particularly when run under the preferred conditions, good yields of the desired trifluorovinyl ether are obtained, and little toxic waste is generated, as most of the byproducts can be recycled in the process, and/or are otherwise useful.
J. D. Citron, J. Organometal. Chem., vol. 30, p. 21-26 (1971) reported (in Table 1 therein) that siloxanes reacted with acyl fluorides to form carboxyl anhydrides and fluorosilanes.